How long to wait for response to open submissions?

[Greybar]

A query for freelancers and publishers:

I expect that Open Submissions are a lot of ongoing work for publishers. You may get items in a wave and then be quiet for months. So I'm not overly surprised that I haven't gotten a response from a company that I made a submission to last fall. Their policy asked for 90 days to review material, a time period which has now elapse. I've dropped a line to them as a follow-up to see if they could use the material, but have received to response.

In the opinions of this group, how long should I give them before I revise the material to submit to another firm?

Thanks for your thoughts,

John

 

[annadobritt]

That's a tough question. I would give them 30 days, then send a polite inquiry about the submission you made.

 

[Darrin Drader]

After that amount of time and no contact, I would assume that they either don't want it or don't care, so I give them one more chanced to tell you where you stand and then take your material elsewhere to see if you can find a better home for the material.